Kim

Aug 30, 2019

Terrible Return Flight Home

On August 22 flight #2421 was over 20 minutes late arriving at Mccarran International Airport in Las Vegas. This caused the flight to leave Las Vegas over 50 minutes late this jeopardizing our connection flight #1296 in Nashville, TN. The flight attendants then said they will hold the plane in Nashville until we arrive there. However we paid for the early bird check in because Southwest doesn't assign seats for their passengers. In order for you and your family members to sit together you have to purchase the early bird check in which assures you a place in line within the first 60 people. This does NOT work if your flight is delayed coming in and your connecting flight already boards everyone even the people who didn't pay for the early bird check in. So you get screwed and lose your place in line which you paid for. So when they boarded us onto flight #1296 and we tell the flight attendant that we paid for the early bird check in. The flight attendant says well we waited 20 minutes for your flight to get in. How is that the passengers fault that the flight go in late? So they tell us to sit in the only available seats which are center seats not even in the same row. Also to make matters worse the seats are sandwiched in between 2 larger than normal sized people. So I had to squeeze between 2 large people and my husband got to sit next to a 350lbs man who was partially in his seat so much so that he had to lay his tray table down to lean on it for the entire flight. Did the flight attendants care???? Of course not because they herd people like cattle on these airplanes, they don't care if your flight is uncomfortable. The flight lasted 1 hour and 23 minutes to Orlando. When we got home. I called Southwest Customer Service and the only thing they said they can do from their end is to refund us the $12.50 each that we paid for the early bird check in. They said to call their Customer Relations Department at 1-855-234-4654 option #5. On 8/30/19 I call Customer Relations and explain to the representative the situation and the terrible experience and she said she can only refund us $50 each in travel vouchers towards another Southwest flight. So this airline company takes your money, gives you a terrible flight experience and only gives you $50 each for your unsatisfactory experience due to their flights not keeping on schedule. I told the representative if Southwest assigned seats in the first place it would not have been a problem because no one would have sat in someone else's seat. We pay for the early bird boarding to get within the first 60 people on a plane so parties can sit together. Looking back in hindsight my husband and I should have walked off the plane and asked to be put on another plane where we would be able to board within the early bird boarding and not loose our place in line. I doubt if I will ever book another trip with Southwest Airlines. Greed runs their business.